During Freshers’ Week, the Public Health Agency (PHA) is encouraging students across Northern Ireland to take steps to look after their health and wellbeing as they get ready to begin a new term at college or university. Brendan Bonner, Assistant Director for Health and Social Wellbeing Improvement at the PHA, said: “This is a really exciting time for students, when you get to make new friends and enjoy some independence. But it can also be overwhelming; there are lots of new things to get to grips with, such as learning to cook and managing budgets. “To help students out we have come up with

To mark this year’s Palliative Care Week [Sunday 8 to Saturday 14 September] the Palliative Care in Partnership programme held a conference to showcase progress made to date on improving the experiences of people with palliative care needs and those important to them, and to set out priorities for the years ahead to continue to enhance and improve these services. Corrina Grimes, Palliative Care lead at the PHA, said: “Due to improvements in public health, people are thankfully living longer and are less likely to die suddenly. We are seeing more people die from illnesses such as dementia

A research team from Queen’s, with support from the Public Health Agency (PHA), has found social network interventions, such as Facebook posts and sponsored ads, educating popular teenagers to spread health messages to peer groups can have a positive effect on public health behaviours and outcomes. The research was carried out in partnership with the University of Southern California. Dr Ruth Hunter, from the Centre for Public Health at Queen’s University Belfast and lead author on the paper, explained: “Humans are embedded in social networks and these networks obey very particular rules -

It’s almost back to school time, so the Public Health Agency (PHA) has some top tips for packing a healthy and nutritious lunchbox for the kids. “Recent surveys looking at children’s lunchboxes found that they were too high in fat, especially saturated fat, salt and sugar,” said Judith Hanvey, Regional Food in Schools Coordinator, appointed jointly by the PHA and the Department of Education. “Just under half of lunchboxes contained no fruit. It is important to include a balanced variety of foods in a packed lunch, so that your child can get all the nutrients they need. Avoid fizzy drinks and